Battle of Pankalia

The Battle of Pankaleia was a battle fought in 978 or 979 between the army loyal to the Byzantine emperor Basil II, commanded by Bardas Phokas the Younger, and the forces of the rebel general Bardas Skleros, which ultimately led to the defeat and exile of the latter. Sources are unclear in the succession and location of the events, so that while earlier scholars followed John Skylitzes in placing the Battle of Pankaleia in March 979 as the decisive victory for loyalist forces, today, following Leo the Deacon's account, it is placed in June 978 and regarded as a defeat for Phokas.

Historical sources on the revolt of Bardas Skleros differ on the sequence and location of the battles that ended it, one of which was fought at the plain of Pankaleia (Παγκάλεια), northeast of Amorium. The history of John Skylitzes, written in the late 11th century, reports that Skleros won a first battle near Amorium, as well as a second at Basilika Therma (modern Sarıkaya), and that it was in a third engagement at Pankaleia that Phokas triumphed. According to Skylitzes, Phokas had been reinforced with 12,000 Georgian cavalry from Tao through his friendship with its ruler, David, but his army again began to give way. Phokas then charged towards Skleros and engaged him in single combat, in which the rebel general was wounded and fled, sowing panic among his men. The late 10th-century writer Leo the Deacon on the other hand writes that the loyalist army under Bardas Phokas first encountered the army of Skleros at Pankaleia and was defeated, but secured a decisive victory in a second battle at an unspecified location. Other authors provide some further details: Michael Psellos also reports the duel of the two generals at the decisive battle, while the early 11th-century Christian Arab historian Yahya of Antioch alludes to two battles, and gives the dates as 19 June 978 and 24 March 979 respectively. What is undisputed is that after his defeat, Skleros fled to his Arab ally, the Hamdanid emir Abu Taghlib, and thence sought refuge in the Buyid court in Baghdad, where he remained for the next seven years.

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